Detection and molecular characterization of porcine toroviruses in Korea

• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-010-0595-2
• Publication Date: 2010-02-02T10:14:13Z
• Authors: Dong-Jun Shin; Sang-Ik Park; Young-Ju Jeong; Myra Hosmillo; Ha-Hyun Kim; Hyun-Jeong Kim; Hyung-Jun Kwon; Mun-Il Kang; Su-Jin Park; Kyoung-Oh Cho
• Keywords: Swine Diseases; Korea; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Swine; Brief Report; Torovirus Infections; Sequence Analysis, DNA; 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences; 3. Good health; 0403 veterinary science; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Torovirus; Prevalence; Animals; Cluster Analysis; RNA, Viral; Phylogeny

This study examined the prevalence and genetic diversity of the porcine torovirus (PToV) in Korea. Of 295 samples, 19 (6.4%) samples tested positive for PToVs by RT-PCR. A low nucleotide sequence identity of the partial S gene was detected among the Korean PToVs (73.5%) and between the Korean and European PToVs (74.0%). Phylogenetic analysis of the spike and nucleocapsid genes showed that the Korean PToVs form distinct branches with clusters corresponding to the farm of origin, which were separate from the other known foreign PToVs. These findings suggest that genetically diverse Korean PToV strains cause sporadic infections in Korea.